History
is not taught very well in today’s public schools, and that is
why the history of the Democratic Party is totally unknown by the American
voting public. Believe it or not, the Democratic Party was inspired
by those Southern delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787
who forced all of the other delegates to accept the institution of slavery
as the price of their participation in the new government. That is why
the Southern states were able to count each slave as three-fifths of
a person in determining the number of Representatives the state could
send to Congress.

Although
the Constitution called for ending the importation of slaves by 1808,
the Southerners were compensated by Section 2 of Article IV, which stated:
“No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any Law or
Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall
be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour
may be due.”

The
word slavery was not mentioned in the Constitution because such men
as Washington, Madison, Franklin, and others had hoped to abolish slavery,
but were forced into the compromises that made it possible for the Southern
states to join the union. They expected that the Southern states would
phase out this undemocratic institution over a period of time.

But
the opposite happened, and the Democratic Party, which was formally
organized in 1831, became the pro-slavery party. While the importation
of slaves was forbidden, the population of slaves grew dramatically
because of deliberate slave-breeding. The children of slaves were automatically
considered slaves. Many a white slave-owner could thereby increase the
value of his slave property by impregnating his female slaves.

Opposing
the Democrats was the Whig party, organized in 1839. But because the
party contained within its ranks both pro-slavery Southerners and anti-slavery
Northerners, the party was too divided to be effective, and they were
gradually overshadowed by a new political group, the Republican Party,
manned by determined Abolitionists. The contest between North and South
now became far more bitter and well defined.

The
National Democratic Convention met at Baltimore in June of 1852. Among
its Resolutions were the following: “All efforts of Abolitionists
or others made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of Slavery”
will “endanger the stability and permanency of the Union.”…”Resolved,
That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress
or out of it, the agitation of the Slavery question, under whatever
shape or color the attempt may be made.”

At
the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati in June, 1856, the
party reiterated its repudiation of all attempts by Abolitionists to
interfere with the institution of Slavery, which, if not stopped, “must
end in civil war and disunion.”

Meanwhile,
agitation for secession on the part of the South had been growing to
the point where most Southerners saw no solution to the problem other
than seceding from the United States. Senator Iveson of Georgia, in
an 1860 address to his constituents said: “Slavery must be maintained
in the Union if possible, out of it if necessary; peaceably if we may,
forcibly if we must.”

In
other words, the South had decided that it preferred preserving the
institution of slavery over preserving the United States of America.
Slavery was more important than Union.

The
election of Democrat James Buchanan as President in 1857 gave Southerners
the opportunity to plan secession with the help of Buchanan’s
Southern members of his Cabinet. For example, John B. Floyd, Secretary
of War, managed to transfer huge amounts of military stores and equipment
from northern armories to Southern ones in preparation for war. As a
result the North was rendered defenseless.

When
the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860,
the slave states decided that the time was ripe for quitting the Union,
setting the stage for Civil War. The Southern Democrats, so totally
imbued with their own power to destroy the Union, did not know what
they were up against in the person of Abraham Lincoln. By 1865, by the
time the Civil War was over, the South lay in ruins and slavery had
been abolished. The Democratic Party then became the part of racial
segregation and Jim Crow.

And
what is the Democratic Party today? It is the party of left-wing socialism,
dumbed-down public education, defeat in Iraq, amnesty for illegal immigrants,
abortion on demand, socialized medicine, gay marriage, more taxes for
everyone, bans on oil drilling, and “change you can believe in.”
As the French say, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose,”
the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.

Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books
on education, including Is Public Education Necessary? and The Whole
Language/OBE Fraud, published by The Paradigm Company, 208-322-4440.His reading instruction program, Alpha-Phonics,
is available by writing The Tutoring Company, P.O. Box 540111,Waltham,
MA 02454-0111.

And what is the Democratic
Party today? It is the party of left-wing socialism, dumbed-down public
education, defeat in Iraq, amnesty for illegal immigrants, abortion on
demand, socialized medicine, gay marriage, more taxes for everyone, bans
on oil drilling, and “change you can believe in.”